Fort

Today is Simon's first day back at work since the breakout. While he promises to be back before the girls wake up from their naps, I am sure we will just have to wait and see. He practically ran out of here this morning kicking and screaming. How much more sick can one person deal with. He needed to get some stuff done as he is out of the office till next Thursday and he suffers from guilt/stress/anxiety whenever he is away from work for too long.

In tribute to all the patience, help, support, the many walgreens runs, grocery store runs and fast food runs, we made a fort in his honor. Nothing says you care quite like moving the furniture and building a fort in the middle of the family room while one is away. Especially if that certain someone who is away can't stand things out of place, at all! This said person has been known to vacuum on a regular basis just because he enjoys seeing the carpet marks.



We love you! Wish you were here. Hope the hives from all the pictures go down before you return.

Ruthie packing up her importanat belongs to take to the fort

Watching video's in the fort.

Screw the Flu Update....

Lulu came down with it last night....

Ruthie looks to be getting it today although I think we have caught it super early with her fever of 100*

Simon has been sleeping in the guest room the whole week upstairs by the kids so it is only a matter of time before he gets it.

He leaves for TX on Saturday, My mom arrives tomorrow night.

We are just having a disney princesses marathon.

Screw the Flu

So, I went to Columbus for a much needed girl weekend. Had a fabulous time, shopped until I could barely walk. Had fabulous meals, saw some amazing friends and realized that it is only a 4 hour drive I really should do that more often then every 18 months.

On the car ride home I started to notice that my throat hurt, then an hour later my ear started to hurt and by the time I got home I was really feeling awful. By Sunday night my temperature was in the 102's nothing great but whatever.

Monday had to call Simon home from work as my temp hit 103.5 had to rush to the dr. Then on Tuesday my temp hit 104.3. That is not really a great feeling, kinda feels like your eyeballs are on fire. Simon had to miss an important roadtrip today as I can barely walk let alone take care of the girls and we certainly don't want them to get this. He leaves for a 5 day trip to TX on Saturday where he is speaking at a conference. I think we may need to call Gammy in for reinforcements.


Definitely the Flu, Definitely the worst I have ever felt in my entire life, Definitely love sleeping.


Blog will resume when I have managed to get out from under the truck that hit me.

Happy Valentines Day

My Papa

Valentines day has always had a special meaning to me ever since 1995, Valentines day was the day My Papa passed away.

An extrememly quick history. He was married to Ruth Catherine, they had 5 beautiful daughters, 17 grandchildren. He fought in WWII, he was wounded at Iwo Jima, he owned many companies through the years, one of them my favorite called CABY (It was a trucking company that stood for Cleveland, Akron, Buffalo, Youngstown) HE LOVED TO GOLF. He had a putting green in his backyard. He used to travel all over on fabulous vacations. He was the president of the Father's Club while his girls were in school, President of the Country Club and The World's Best Grandpa.

In 1983 He had open heart surgery and without boring you with any of the details he had a hard time coming off the anesthesia and when he came out of surgery it was like the movie "Regarding Henry" with Harrison Ford. He had no memory what so ever. He had to learn to walk, tie his shoes, learn words all over again. I was 7 when this happened and I remember riding my bike to my grandparents house and doing flashcards with him all day. When he was finally able to walk he didn't stop. My granparents lived in a cul de sac on a long street so he would essentially walk the horsehoe all day long. He wasn't allowed to cross the street because he would get lost. But he would walk for hours, then he would come in and play solitaire this too, for hours.

My grandparents always lived extremely close my whole life. I think we saw them every couple of days. If not every day. It was nothing for them to pick me up from school even until I was in highschool. We spent many a nights sleeping over at their house or just hanging out there.

My Papa taught me so much and I am a better person for his lessons...

- How to take long naps during boring family parties.

- How to take a perfect nap - Just turn on a good golf game.

- Perserverance when dealt with a bad hand.

- Patience. He had 5 girls.

- Brunch on weekend mornings are a must and good quality family time.

- Kindness - I still remember that no matter how painful a treatment was while in the nursing home He being a grown man crying in pain, he would thank the nurse or doctor every time for taking good care of him. I make the girls thank the nurses for their shots.

- Loyalty, Compassion, Bravery, the list goes on and on.

My family was fortunate enough to live 30 minutes away from the veterans home that he spent the last few months of his life at. We would visit him several times a week, for hours and he was coherant right until his last days. And when his time was over here on earth, his wife, 4 of his daughters and 13 of his grandchildren were with him in the room holding his hands telling him we loved him. It was the most perfect ending to a wonderful life. I miss him every day and know that he watches over me and my family. I know that he would be so proud to be a great-grandfather. He will always be in our hearts and Valentines Day is special because I don't know that there is anyone around that had a bigger heart than my papa.

See you later alligator.

Simon's Birthday Review.

Simon had the choice to go anywhere for dinner for his birthday. Now being in a pretty small town there are not too many places to choose but his choice......Bob Evans. Yep that's right. Bob Evans. It got me to thinking about Simon's past birthdays. I recall his 30th birthday which was not that long ago. We rented out our favorite local bar and had 50 of our closest friends and partied all night. We had 8 additional people crash at our house after the party and Simon had the most to drink I have ever seen, except for the night at the Wayne when he mooned our bosses wife through the window. (I think the only person that knew that story that reads this blog would be Debi, because weren't you there that night?).

So you can imagine my head shaking when he says I choose to go to Bob Evans. My how quickly things have changed in just 3 short years. We have lived in 3 houses, have had 2 kids and now we are rushing to get to Bob Evans for the early bird special. Man who hit the fast forward button too many times!!!

We had a great time preparing for Simon's birthday and I think he had a great day.

Lulu was too funny with the m&m's she was smashing them in too worried they would fall off.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIMON!!!

Today is Simon's 33rd Birthday. Wow, such an old man. In true list form I would like to highlight some memorable moments of his 32nd year....

* Completed a successful second year in his not so new position. (He actually got his promotion to his current position on his 31st birthday.)

* He started out his 32nd year stranded in a hotel room for 3 days in Indiana during a horrible snow storm where the entire midwest was closed. He was miserable I thought it sounded like a beautiful vacation.

* Traveled to California, Montana, Florida, Mackinak, New York, New Jersey, Chicago and put about 50,000 miles on his car. All for work but what a great way to see the US.

* Got to visit with some good friends during his travels.

* Managed to make it out on the golf course 4 times. With his busy schedule this truly was an accomplishment.

* Completed almost 1 year of a 3 year master's program.

* Possibly said "no" to the girls 3 times. (Again, this is a rather large accomplishment. We are working on him saying "no")

* Went to see the Wiggles Live. First of many shows I am sure.

* Took a great family vacation to the beach for a week.

* Spent many hours at the zoo.

Simon is the most amazing father, husband and friend and the girls and I are so blessed to have such a great leader of Team Bisson.

Happy Birthday Bubby!

Confessions of an Idiot

So, I would like to say that every day is not always perfect around here. We started out today at record breaking temperatures which meant we were housebound again! Simon went to work and the girls and my usual routine which is going to the Y was not going to work since all schools were closed.

Not to worry, we did some coloring, played playdoh, and we were going to make homemade pizza for lunch which was intended to be today's post..........

So, as you will see in yesterday's post, I made an egg casserole which proceded to drip in the oven and smoke up the kitchen last night. This my friends is usual, as Simon likes to lovingly point out instead of using a timer we know dinner is ready when the smoke alarm goes off. So, I totally forgot about yesterday's events when I went to pre-heat the oven for the pizza.

When the smoke started to fill up the kitchen we scrapped the pizza idea and moved on to peanut butter and jelly. I cracked the window in the kitchen (ON THE COLDEST DAY OF THE YEAR) and went on my merry little way. I don't know what I was thinking next when I thought, I may as well just automatic clean the oven as this situation is never going to get better........HUGE MISTAKE!

All of a sudden I notice that the kitchen is full of smoke and I look in the oven and there are large flames consuming the entire oven. I guess this is why automatic cleaners have the locking mechanism since I would have been the jerk that opened the oven to look at the fire all the while lighting my afro on fire.

So instead of just one window, I now have all the windows open, the front door and fans going all through the house. Did I forget to mention that the temperature this morning was 0 and the windchill was negative below. I call my neighbor and she offers up some box fans because apparently that is just what you need when you try to burn your house down on the coldest day of the year. So, I open the garage, warm up the car for 15 minutes and procede to drive across the street to her house to pick up the fans. I know totally whiskey tango but seriously, it was alot quicker to load the girls into the car and drive across the street than my other options which were 1 - run over there on the coldest day of the year and leave them here. 2 - take the girls with me in all their snowsuits for a 3 minute walk. (anyone remember the christmas story movie. It would have taken me a half an hour to get them in all their gear for the cold for a 3 minute walk) Now for those of you that don't understand why I wouldn't just leave the girls and run across the street let me just paint a picture for you. In the amount of time that it took me to run 15 feet away to the bathroom Lulu had managed to climb up on the kitchen table, grab and crayon and color in the tiles on the floor. Leaving the kids unattended is never an option.

So we get back I hook up all the fans to suck the smoke out of the house while the windows are open in our frigid house. I put the girls with a mound full of blankets in my bed with Barney on the TV and a baby gate in front of my bathroom and begin my makeshift Fire patrol.

Did I forget to mention that I looked at the clock and it was only 11:30. Seriously, all this drama and it isn't even noon!

And Simon wonders what I do all day and why many days we have early happy hour and I order out Pizza. I am ready for a nap!

Wind Chill is currently at -18*

Today was one of the colder days of the winter. It was 4* when we were driving to church this morning, the roads were solid ice and the snow was just blowing huge snow drifts everywhere. We made an executive decision to have pajama day and our neighbor's (Ruthie's best friend Andie Jo and her mom and dad) over for breakfast for dinner. Breakfast didn't happen this morning since someone who shall remain nameless was feeling under the weather due to his pre-birthday dinner last night.



I just went on weather.com and it says that it is 0 and the windchill is -18 and it is only 8pm. YIKES!



Anyhoo, the pajama breakfast for dinner somehow turned into playtime as princesses then dinner. We all ate way too much yummy eggs, potato casserole, homemade waffles, bacon, sausage, the works. I seriously am still stuffed hours later. We take our breakfast very seriously. Is this the parent version of handling a hangover?



After dinner the girls played more and then Simon informed me that our girls had decided to get naked and wanted to get in the bath. Upon notification of the nakedness I went upstairs to find Lulu had pooped on the floor and Ruthie was running around crazy.



Just another exciting day at our house.

Pajama Breakfast for Dinner with the Dolven's

(The Dolven's are the ones that started the nickname Team Bisson)

Chad, the dad stays at home while Cheryl works, so he is the one that I spend most of my time with. Kinda funny that all my time as a stay at home mom is spent with a stay at home dad. But rather fitting as I too like to play video games and spend all day in my pajamas. Pizza every night for dinner.....Bring it on!

Bisson Princesses.

Looking at this picture I just want to take that pacifier and throw it. But today with the headaches and being stuck inside was not the day to really fight it. I know that people say that their kids can scream but Lulu knows how to take it to a whole other level. Lulu in this picture says it all. "I want it my way and I have learned that Mommy and Daddy hate the sound of my screaming so I will show you."

Princess Lulu enjoying herself.

Blog Tag for Simon

5 Interesting/random things about Simon - In his words during an interview for the blog.

1. I was on the Ricki Lake show (In the audience but he still thinks this is a big deal)

2. I can fly on the flying trapeze and have caught tons of people while in the catchers bar on the flying trapeze. (While most of the readers of this blog know this fact, it is still a pretty awesome one. And certainly one that Simon's boss likes to bring up all the time in important business meetings to people that may not know this fact.)

3. I grew up on a 22 square mile Island in the English Channel.

4. I can't eat, look at or touch a tomato, but I put ketchup on everything even pizza. (It's a flesh thing.)

5. I have no sense of direction. I mean, I get lost daily, like driving home from work I will miss my exit. (Seriously, he once got lost driving us home from our friends house and our friends house is only a half a mile away from our house in Columbus where we lived for 3 years)


Places I would like to visit or re-visit.

1. I too would like to go to Grand Canyon.

2. I would like to go to Australia

3. I would like to go skiing in Colorado.

4. I would like to re-live the European backpacking vacation I took when I was 16.

5. I would like to go sit outside my beach house that I will have someday.

Blog TAg

OK. You know the drill, I got 'popcorned" by Trish who got it from Leslie, so in a new form of blog tag I must fill in the following things:



Share 5 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog or the 5 top places on your “want to see or want to see again” list.



Random Facts:

1. I strongly dislike flying. To the point that if you are "lucky" enough to travel with me...You too will strongly dislike flying.

2. I can ride a unicycle and juggle all at the same time.

3. I have a "secret" addiction to the show 7th Heaven and have tried to have my family's names coordinate with their names. Just a few more to go.....Not entirely true...It just worked out that way but people have questioned more than once.

4. I don't like going to movie theaters because I am afraid that a random person may sit down next to me and halfway through the movie turn and just stare at me.

5. I love to bake and make cookies, brownies, or cakes a couple of times a week.


5 places I would like to visit or re-visit.....

1. Anywhere with Simon for a honeymoon that we never got to take........(preferably with a cabana boy)

2. If it weren't for nubmer 1 above.......I would want to see the pyramids

3. Again, if it weren't for number 1 above, I would love to see Sydney

4. The backs of my eyelids for about 12-14 hours like the good old days when there were no kids and I would spend hours on the couch watching re-runs.

5. the grand canyon.

Simon and I had an interesting comveration this evening about what we would have put down for the other person and remarkably it was rather similar to my list. he said he will give me the list for him tomorrow.

Pictures of the past month.

Ruthie's Panty Party

Weekend in Review

We all headed off to Cleveland for a long weekend. My sister Katie and her husband Tim gave us cirque de soleil tickets for Christmas. What a great gift. With Gammy in Cleveland the girls were excited for a visit and we were once again greatful for the visit and the childcare.

Friday morning we headed to the Cleveland Zoo and Rainforest. We just can't get enough of the elephants. We stayed so long in the pachyderm building that we all grew used to the smell. We even got to see a Hippo taking a bath.

We had drinks with my dad and his wife before the show and a late night dinner with my brother and his wife after the show. No matter how long we stay in Cleveland there is never enough time to see everyone. We always have to stick to such a rigid schedule.

Saturday we went to my dad's to visit with the kids. They love seeing Uncle Kevin and Aunt Regan. Since Kevin is only 12 the girls think he is just their buddy and that he is different than the rest of their aunt's and uncle's. Then Simon and I had an afternoon of marathon shopping while the girls were in the care of their Gammy.

We were able to score some decor for Ruthie's big girl room and just soak in the civilization of a shopping center. Something I go through withdraw from.

The best purchase of the weekend was A BRAND NEW COMPUTER!!!! We are so excited. As soon as we got home yesterday Simon was all over getting it up and running because "You really have been neglecting the blog and our fans" I am sure that all 5 of our regular fans are coping just fine without the daily pictures of the family. And you are all probably happy that I didn't upload the pictures from the crazy pooping habits of Ruthie.

So, I like to think of myself as somewhat computer literate. (I don't know if most people know that my previous job before being a mother was Supervisor of Store Communications for one of the Limited companies) my team was in charge of all the POS support and the daily communication of the home office to more than 600 stores. So one would think I could get things sorted out. Apparently parenthood has turned my brain to mush as I can't even get comfortable with the new keyboard! Let alone figure out the new filing system for pictures and what not. My camera had over 550 pictures on it when I downloaded and they all went into one file. Yikes.

So, this afternoon during naps, while our carpet is being installed and I am making dinner and cleaning the house, I will be sorting out the computer so that we can once again resume our regularly posting schedule.


So to sum it all up, for our weekend in Review.

Went to Gammy's she took wonderful care of her girls, we got some much needed adult time, saw some good friends and family, had some great retail therapy, bought a computer, having the carpet installed today, I am feeling like things are finally getting back to normal.